Company siphons child support

The state Attorney General's Office is looking at a Nevada operation that takes money meant for kids

RALEIGH -- Parents seeking help collecting child support payments are being lured by a private company that pockets a third of the monthly payments meant for the care of the children.

Some parents assume that the Nevada-based company, Child Support Services, is a government agency. At least one customer said she inadvertently signed a contract with the company that would have cost her more than $10,000 in lost child support payments. The local government agency that handles child support would have charged her no more than $25.

The company's practices infuriate Lillian Overton, who runs the child support enforcement program for Wake County.

"This money is supposed to be for children," said Overton, whose office handles roughly 20,000 cases. "This is unconscionable."

The scope of Child Support Services' operation is unclear, but authorities in three states are aware of hundreds of clients complaining of being scammed in their dealings with the private company. The company and its owner, Stuart C. Cole, have already been ordered to shut down in Florida. Georgia authorities are also scrutinizing Cole's practices.

The North Carolina attorney general decided last week to begin investigating Child Support Services of Wake County; the N.C. State Bar has also launched an investigation to determine whether Cole and his company are practicing law without a license.

Cole did not respond to numerous telephone messages, e-mail and a letter; a Florida lawyer who represented him in 2006 in a lawsuit brought by the state said he no longer represents Cole and is not in communication with him.

To Paulette Turlington of Raleigh, the company's pitch sounded legitimate and appealing.

Turlington was caring for her two teenage daughters with the help of a $650 monthly child support payment she negotiated in 1999 when she divorced their father. This summer, as gas prices climbed along with the cost of everything else, Turlington struggled.

In August, she searched for a phone number to the county child support office to ask whether it could help increase her support. She navigated the Internet to "Superpages," an online phone directory. She typed in "child support Wake county." She called the first listing: Child Support Services of Wake County.

Quick work promised

The woman who answered promised swift action. Turlington said she was assured that any fees would be passed to her former husband. The woman faxed Turlington a form and advised her to sign it so a case manager could begin work.

What Turlington signed was a contract locking her into their services for four years. The company would keep 35 percent of her monthly payment as a fee, regardless of whether they managed to increase her payments.

"I feel so stupid, but I was totally lied to. I was scammed," Turlington said. After she faxed in the contract, she said, she couldn't get anyone on staff to take or return her calls.

Meanwhile, Turlington's former husband, Mark Snyder, received a letter from Child Support Services of Wake County ordering him to appear at an address on Wilmington Street in downtown Raleigh for a "review" of his support. If he had gone to the address, he would have found that it belonged to a UPS store.

The letter also offered an easier option: Just call a toll-free number to avoid the hearing.

Snyder called the number, thinking it was the county's child support enforcement office. When the woman who answered advised him to redirect his same monthly payment to the company, Snyder agreed.

"I didn't want to go to jail," Snyder said. "I know I have an obligation to my daughters."